Sunday, January 28, 2018

We can't win in Afghanistan because we don't know why we're there?

Thanks to Overwatch DVA for the link!

via NY Times

“The United States is not losing in Afghanistan, but it is not winning either, and that is not good enough,” reads the opening sentence of a top-secret review of the war in Afghanistan commissioned by President George W. Bush in 2008, according to multiple participants in that review. Subsequent classified reviews of the American strategy in the war have repeated that conclusion.

The Trump administration undertook the latest rethinking of the war in August. President Trump’s advisers again reviewed its causes: opium, corruption, ethnic factionalism and, above all, the support and sanctuary provided to the Taliban by Pakistan, through the covert action arm of its powerful spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence.

Why is this problem so hard? Why, since the Sept. 11 attacks, has the United States been unable to prevent Pakistan, a notional ally that has received billions of dollars in aid, from succoring the Taliban at such a high cost in American lives and Afghan misery?

One major reason is American war aims in Afghanistan have been, and remain, riddled with contradictions and illusions that Inter-Services Intelligence can exploit. President Bush, President Barack Obama and President Trump have all offered convoluted, incomplete or unconvincing answers to essential questions: Why are we in Afghanistan? What interests justify our sacrifices? How will the war end?

Consider this. When we made our foray into Afghanistan within the timespan of a couple of months we had destroyed Al Qaeda, sent the Taliban running and for some unknown reason let Bin Laden slip between our fingers.

If we were smart the war for us would have ended right there.

We could hunt Bin Laden at our leisure. Afghanistan would be an Afghanistan problem.

But what did we do instead?

We wandered from stupid reason to stupid reason for why we had to stay. First it was the idiots yelling "stay the course". Then it was pushing the meme "that all people deserve to live in a democracy". Next it was to give women and children a chance at a real life outside of Islamic law.

Now?

Now they're saying that if we leave it will create a power vacuum and that we'll be right back chasing terrorists in that country...they'll fight us in the US instead of us fighting them over there.

The sheer insanity of it all boggles the mind.

The author though makes one other point that must be popped out. I've talked about a deep state on these pages and some have laughed. But do you get the force of connection in this article? Inter service agencies are influencing US policy?

Just plain wow.

Read the article and accept as fact the idea that we really do have a deep state inside the US govt.